The whole purpose of building a sunroom as an addition to your home is to create a room with plenty of natural sunlight. This light acts both as decoration and as a heating source for the room, so it’s important to plan out your sunroom windows before the builders begin their work.
When thinking about the types of sunroom window you want to have, you need to think about what your sunroom’s main purpose will be. For example, if it’s mainly as a gateway to a garden, you’ll want bigger, longer windows that slide open, while a sunroom that you’re intending to use as a home office will want smaller windows to give you more wall space. The main types of window include:
- Fixed – fixed windows don’t open, and may not sound useful. However, they can be utilized up high near the ceiling to add additional light without having to worry about opening or closing them.
- Hung and double-hung – these are traditional windows that open out or in, or in the case of double-hung windows, both ways. Choose these for better ventilation options.
- Sliding – in a place where you’re more exposed to wind or you’re short on room, sliding windows save space and don’t get blown around. They slide across each other which means that you’ll only ever be able to open half at a time.
- Bay – finally, if you’re really looking to extend your home, put a bay window on one side of your sunroom. These curve out from the walls and make for fantastic reading nooks or just simply places to watch the world go by.
Once you’ve chosen your window type, you need to think about what will actually go inside the frame. Here, it’s a rule of the more layers the better, but also that the more layers you have, the more expensive each window will be. Look out for these options:
- Double glazed – as the name implies, this is two layers of glass with a slight gap in between. The outside layer absorbs the cold, while the inside layer reflects heat back in, making it more energy efficient than a single pane of glass.
- Triple glazed – like double glazed windows, but with a third pane in the middle. This creates two pockets of air instead of just one, and this double barrier acts like another layer of insulation.
- Gas filled – you can buy double or triple glazed windows that are filled with inert noble gases such as argon or krypton. These are non-poisonous, and are better at retaining and releasing than regular air.
Whatever your sunroom window choice, you should always look out for ones that have a Low-E coating. This special layer is applied to the internal side of the glass and allows light and heat in, but not back out. It should be transparent so the view through your sunroom windows isn’t altered, but you can also buy a tinted version if you’re worried about sun glare. In either case, ask for a Low-E coating to be applied to all of your sunroom windows.
